First Lines:I pedal fast. Down Rose Drive where houses swim in pools of orange streetlight. Where people sit on verandahs, hoping to catch a breeze. Let me make it in time. Please let me make it in time.

Synopsis:
"Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

My Thoughts:I'd had this on my reading pile for a while. I was stoked when Pan Macmillan sent this through to me but I was a little intimidated you see. When books come with stickers like 'The Children's Book Council of Australia Short-Listed Book' and 'Winner of NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2011' I become a little wary. The instant that happens the expectations jump up a notch. And, somehow without me realising, I'm expecting a book that will give me fireworks and the whole shebang but the last time that happened, I was let down COMPLETELY. Thank you, Cath Crowley for proving me wrong this time!!

I really enjoyed both Lucy and Ed's POV's which is how the story is told in alternating chapters. Along the way through the book we occasionally come across a chapter here and there of Poet's which are poems about how he is feeling as well. This is one book that definitely has both thumbs up for the creativity side!

Cath Crowley has done an amazing job at creating vivid and enjoyable characters who I fell in love with immediately. Between Lucy and her friends trying to find Shadow and Poet, and the adventure Ed and Leo embark on, I there is not a dull or uninspiring moment. I even found myself tagging alot of pages because there were so many quotable lines I could relate to.

If you're after a very Australian, creative read.. something that has a mixture of beautiful and sad moments this ones for you!

Fave Line:"He's one of the good guys," she always said. "Just sometimes he's working under cover.""My Dad was a magician too. Got in his car and disappeared."

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If you are an Author or Publisher who'd like me to review, hold a contest, do an author interview, or help promote your book, please contact me, either by my Contact page, or by emailing me at: melissa(AT)spellboundbybooks(DOT)com Please read my Review Policy for further details before contacting me